The New York Times Style Section recently ran a report called “UNEASY BEDFELLOWS,” describing marriages that reached the point of dissolution because of arguments concerning Donald Trump. When I discussed the subject on the air, one astute caller noted that none of the couples featured in the story seemed to share a religious outlook, and he suggested that if they did, they could far more easily handle their political disputes.

Unfortunately, far too many Americans now use politics as a substitute for faith, treating party loyalty as a matter of uncompromising identity that provides meaning, transcendence and morality. Passionate partisans on both sides see political disputes not as choices of policies or values, but as the ultimate struggle between good and evil.

If couples worshiped a higher power together, they wouldn’t need to sacrifice relationships on the altar of either Trump or Clinton, and might treat political quarrels as the ephemeral, well-intentioned disagreements they really are.